Chamber and committees

I read Alex Hogg’s response to the Scottish Government’s response, which, although positive, was somewhat skeletal—it said that control of general predators was just a component alongside other things. In the petitioner’s submission, he has pointed out that the minister has contradicted what the Government has said, in that she says that the main elements are not predator control but well-managed restoration and expansion of the pine forest. That is not what NatureScot’s scientific advisory committee said—it said that predator control is essential. That is not happening in Strathspey, and the capercaillie is under threat of extinction. Journalists such as Magnus Linklater have championed the cause for a long time.

Without labouring the point and going on for ever, my recommendation is that, given the expertise and knowledge that is possessed within the ranks of the SGA, and Alex Hogg’s seniority as its president, it would be useful to have a short evidence session where we give him the opportunity to say what he thinks should be done. Plainly, he has a huge amount to offer, all in the cause of preventing the capercaillie from going into extinction. For the past 25 years, every land manager and farmer in my constituency has said that that will happen unless they start controlling the predators.

I was just going to make an additional suggestion.

I can see the logic of the replies from the Scottish Law Commission and the Law Society that this is a difficult area and that a blanket solution does not necessarily present itself. I note—this is my suggestion—that the Law Commission says that, in its 11th programme of law reform, which has not been published yet, it expects that aspects of family law, including issues relating to how family law intersects with domestic abuse and violence, should be covered between 2023 and 2027. I wonder whether it would not be indecorous or impolite for us to recommend to the commission that it perhaps tries to focus on that early on in its consideration. On the face of it, a man who carries out violence and has sole title to the matrimonial home is in a position of, if you like, benefiting from his crime to the extent of being able to sell a property—in certain circumstances anyway; interdicts might apply.

I just wonder whether members feel that we could urge the Scottish Law Commission to bring forward consideration to the early part of January 2023. This is an issue on which the commission’s advice will be essential, because it has provided family law in Scotland with a very solid base from the Family Law (Scotland) Act 1985 onwards, and that has served Scotland well. However, there are still loopholes to be filled, and I make this plea directly to the commission. If we were to write to it, I do not see that that would do any harm, and that might give the petitioner some comfort that we are not just kicking the issue into the long grass.

I have a few suggestions to make. As the clerks have helpfully suggested, perhaps we can write to the Minister for Energy and the Environment to ask whether the Scottish Government has the power to mandate community shared ownership for new wind farms, first, by using the devolved power under section 36 of the Electricity Act 1989 to lower the threshold for when an application to build a wind farm requires a minister’s consent and, secondly, by withholding consent from any application that did not agree to a community shared ownership model. That is my first suggestion.

I want to make another suggestion, or an extended comment, if I may, convener. On rereading the submissions, I note that the Scottish National Investment Bank’s submission is dated 13 March, which is a long time ago now, and that the minister provided a submission on 6 April. Both submissions were quite helpful. Both referred to the work that Local Energy Scotland is doing, to which you have alluded, saying that they expected to hear from the organisation—this is the phrase that both used—“in the coming weeks”. Weeks have come and gone—months have elapsed—since then.

I will give one example. I spoke to a wind farm developer who is proposing to develop a fairly large wind farm in the Dava area of my constituency, which is already covered with wind farms and where the populace’s view of them is mixed. Initially, the developer wanted 50 turbines but is now down to 18, mainly because the Cairngorms National Park Authority has negotiated the number down to that figure. I have long thought that a way in which community ownership can be made to work, without its being seen as a penalty on commercial companies, is that, instead of a developer proposing 18 turbines, they propose 20 or 22, with the additional two or four being community owned. In other words, the company gets what it was planning to get anyway, but, in exchange for planning permission, it is required to enable the development to be expanded so that communities can add two or four turbines. In those distant days of yore when I was the responsible minister, funding was available for that to be facilitated. Triodos Bank, Close Brothers, the Co-operative Bank and some others funded it to the tune of between 90 and 95 per cent, with the Scottish Government funding the remaining 5 to 10 per cent. That allowed communities to have a real stake of ownership. My worry is that time is passing us by. Such applications are being made all the time, and every one that is granted is a lost opportunity.

The petitioner, Karen Murphy, has pointed that out. Lots of applications for onshore wind farms are going on all the time. Therefore, I wonder whether we could ask the minister and the SNIB to show a little bit more urgency in telling us what Local Energy Scotland has said, as they promised they would do within a few weeks of their submissions but have not done, and generally knock them out of this somewhat complacent approach when the real opportunities for Scotland, which everybody sees—I do not think that this is political, convener—are passing us by. We are losing those opportunities, when we used to grab them. There is a long history to this, and I have probably gone on long enough, so I will not even go to chapter 1 of that long history, you will be relieved to hear.

Indeed. It was the preface to the prologue. [Laughter.]

I feel very strongly that that approach could transform rural Scotland by providing not just £5,000 per megawatt, which is looking a bit jaded and out of date now, but a real ownership stake. That is when the real opportunities to transform rural Scotland will arise, by using the fund to invest in young people’s training, education and future.

I thought that making those remarks might help the minister to see that opportunity knocks but that we are in danger of the postman going on to the next house. That could happen in this case.

I wonder whether we should inquire—maybe the clerks can inform us about this now—whether the Criminal Justice Committee reached any conclusion. Plainly, it heard detailed evidence, and we have not. That is narrated clearly in the material before us, but it is not clear what the Criminal Justice Committee will do about it. It may be that it will make recommendations in its budget report.

Would it be prudent for us to make informal inquiries to see where matters stand with the Criminal Justice Committee? It has started to look at the issue in detail, so it does not seem appropriate that we duplicate that work. On the other hand, our duty to the petitioners is to make sure that we do not prematurely close the petition when we do not quite know where its fate lies.

I support that recommendation. We might also wish to seek from the Scottish Government an update on what testing and training are provided on the use of naloxone. Many moons ago, between 2007 and 2011, when I was the drugs minister, we promoted the use of naloxone by, for example, police officers. If applied, naloxone can reverse the effects of opioids, and, in certain circumstances, it can save lives. It is not without its controversies, but that measure was introduced years ago. I raise it because, in relation to drug testing, it has the potential to save lives and is very valuable.

It would be helpful to get a fairly comprehensive account from the Scottish Government about how naloxone has been rolled out, whether the police are now using it, as was wished to be the case, whether there are any barriers, and what is being doing with it specifically. We are all alarmed and concerned at the number of drug deaths in Scotland, and, in some circumstances, naloxone can save lives.

Thank you very much for your evidence this morning. It has been informative, revelatory and quite explosive. My constituents want to know why we have not delivered our promises, and you are steering us towards the answers today. I just want to probe a couple of bits of that.

You said that the officials had provided you with the timing of when each section could be done. You read that out helpfully for the record. In other words, you did not say, “I want you to do this work by such and such”; you said, “When can it be done?”, and they provided you with the memo of 28 May 2012, which said that it could be done by 2025. Is that correct? It was not your deadline; it was when they said that the job could be completed by.

I have a short final question. Mr Neil, why do you think that the A9 dualling project has fallen so very far behind schedule?

We may need to ask your successors what they did—